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When friends of Thomas Groot brought him a bag of Extra Joss from Indonesia as a souvenir, he was sold. The feeling the powder gave him was so nice that he decided to bring the product to the Netherlands. He now sells it at home and abroad. “It is mainly the students who buy it here. But I also sell a lot to bars in French ski resorts and I am now working on a batch in Albufeira, where many Dutch young people go.”
He therefore focuses mainly on young people. “I am now also working with students who will promote it for me in student cities.” Young people put the contents of a bag in a shot of drink (mainly vodka) or pour it straight into your mouth. Each bag contains 50 milligrams of caffeine, which is approximately equal to a small cup of coffee or a mug of tea. According to Groot, it is ideal for students who do not want to get tired and do not want to pay for energy drinks. A bag of Extra Joss costs about 20 cents. Groot sells half a million a year.
‘No health benefits whatsoever’
Even though there is not a lot of caffeine in a bag, nutritional scientists recommend not taking it indefinitely. “You have to be careful with it,” says Ingeborg Brouwer, food scientist at the VU to Editie NL. “Young people are a bit more sensitive to caffeine than older people. I’m always afraid with these kinds of things that teenagers will also do it, and they are still growing and then it is bad for you. In addition, it has no health benefits whatsoever.”
According to Brouwer, the limit for caffeine intake is approximately 300 milligrams per day. If you have already drunk a few cups of coffee during the day, it is not wise to add bags of energy powder to your drink all evening. The risk of taking too much is lurking, thinks Renger Witkamp, ​​professor of nutrition and pharmacology at Wageningen University. “You really have to drink a lot of coffee if you want to get caffeine poisoning. That has a kind of self-limiting capacity.”
But if you dissolve a bag in a shot glass, you won’t get full so quickly. “A lot of caffeine is not good, it makes you feel nauseous. But it does work, if you have drunk alcohol and you take caffeine you become a little more alert. But if you are not used to drinking coffee or tea, your heart rate can increase to go.”
According to him, caffeine poisoning occurs at more than 500 milligrams per day. “But there are also people who have taken grams of caffeine and survived.”
Thomas Groot of Extra Joss calls it a healthy alternative to energy drinks, but recommends not taking more than two sachets per day. Pregnant women and children are not recommended to use it.
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